Robert frederick foster



(No Model.)

R. P. FOSTER. PLAYING CARDS.

No. 404,782. Patented June 4, 1889.

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ROBERT FREDERICK FOSTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOALEXANDER J. LEITH, OF NET V YORK, N. Y.

PLAYING-CARDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 404,782, dated June 4,1889.

$eria1 No. 309,356. (No mcdel.)

T0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT FREDERICK FOSTER, a subject of the Queen ofGreat Britain, and a resident of the city of Baltimore, in the State ofMaryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inPlaying-Cards, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its objects to facilitate the acquisition of theknowledge of the best modes of playing different games of cards, topermit prearranged games to be properly played by a less number ofpersons than is necessary in ordinary playing, but in the same manner asif all the players were present, and to indicate to each player theorder in which his cards would be played by an expert playing the samehand in the same game; and to this end I provide the cards of the packeach with one or more indicators or series of indications, whereby withone or more prearranged hands the proper play of each player is clearlyindicated at each play in the game, and whereby any one or more personscan play the hand of one or more absent players in the same manner assuch players, if experts, would play their hands if present.

The indicators may be figures, letters, signs, or symbols of anysuitable character on the faces or backs of the cards, printed,embossed, or otherwise placed thereon, and one symbol by its differencein position, color, or otherwise may be used to give two or moreindications.

For the purpose of illustrating 111 y improvement I have shown it in theaccompanying drawings in connection with cards and indicators arrangedto designate the proper play of various hands in five games of whist.

Figure 1 shows the backs of five cards of a pack embodying my inventionas prearranged for playing five games of whist; Fig; 2, the face of thejoker of said pack; Fig. 3, the arrangement of the cards of one hand ofsaid pack and the indicators thereon, Fig. 4 illustrating thedistribution of the cards among the players.

In said drawings each card is shown as provided with three series ofindicators a b c,

five different games in their order, the second letters of the alphabet,A B Y Z designating the four players orhauds in the game of whist, A andB being partners and Y and Z the opposite partners, and the third arefigures designating the order in which the different players play eachof the cards of his hand-that is, referring to the card at the left,Fig. 1, the upper figure 1 thereon indicates the first game, the letterB shows that the card is one of the thirteen constituting the hand ofone player .13, and the lower figure 1 indicates that that card isplayed last, or when but one card remains in the hands. This relation ofthe indicators is the same upon all the cards, although the letters andfigures vary to desiguatc the cards held by the different players andthe order in which they are played. Thus on the right-hand card, Fig. 3,the top figure 1 indicates the first game, the letter A below shows thatthe card is one of thirteen constituting the hand of one player A, andthe number 13 below the letter A shows that that card, being thethirteenth of the hand, must be the first played when the thirteen cardsare in the hand. This arrangement of the cards is determined in thefirst instance by dealing a pack in four hands, as usual, and then,witha knowledge of what is in each hand, playing the hands in succession soas to secure the best results, and thereafter marking the cards of thedifferent hands to distinguish the order in which they have been playedin that particular game. Under the the figures 2 3 4, &c., are indicatedthe cards which are held by the different players and the order ofplaying in the second, third, fourth, duo, predetermined games.

In the arrangement shown the cards, being reversible, are provided eachwith two sets of indicators, and as there are four players in whist thepack is divided into four sections or hands of thirteen cards each andthe joker is used to designate the trump, as will be any hand has onlyto play the cards in the succession of their numbers or in inversesnccession, as in the arrangement shown, in order to properly play hishand. The thirteen cards of each hand are also distinguished by theindicator 1), showing the player to which they belong, as A, B, Y, or Z,so that by sorting the pack by means of these indicators or letters theprearranged cards of each hand are properly assembled or separated fromthe others.

In the drawings the indicators are shown as arranged for five separategames, but for the purpose of description of the playing of a singlegame all but the indicators of the first game (under the numerals 1)will be ignored. The cards being properly sorted into fen r hands, thecards of each hand are preferably arranged as shown in Fig. 3, and theplayers are seated as shown in Fig. 4-; or if there are less than fourplayq's the cards of each absent player are placed in proper position onthe table.

One of the players will now look at the fiftythird card or joker,illustrated in Fig-2, when he will find that the trump-card for gameNo. 1. is the two of hearts, and of course Z always deals and A alwaysleads. Assuming that there is but one personv playing, and that heelects to play Zs hand, he picks up his pile of cards and sorts theminto suits by the faces, just as he would in any ordinary game of whist.That done, he is ready to play, and holding his (Zs) cards in one handhe turns up As top card, No. 13, and finds it is, for instance, in thepredetermined game to be now described, the two of diamonds. lie turnsup Ys (No. 13) top card and finds .it is the tour of diamonds. Then heturns up lls top card and findsitis the queen of diamonds. ltisnow his(Zs) turn to play. Looking at his hand, he finds the ace and three ofdiamonds in it, and he takes the trick with the ace. It is now his lead,and finding clubs are his best suit he will lead a club. If he is a goodplayer he knows the correct play his fourth-best, the five of clubs. Tobe sure that that is the correct play he notes that he has now twelvecards in his hand, and on looking at the indicators at the back of thefive of clubs he sees it has the number 12, showing that thatis theproper card to play, or the way an expert in the game would play such ahand as he now holds. Having played his five of clubs, and it being Asnext play, he turns up As top card. It isthe three of clubs. ThenYs topcard. It is the queen of clubs. 'lhen lls top card. It is the fourofclubs. As his partner Y took that trick, he gathers it in as he did thefirst trick, and as it is now his partners lead he turns 'up hispartners (Ys) top card and finds itis the jack of spades. Asll playsnext,heturns up his top card and finds that ll takes the jack with thequeen of spades. Looking at his own hand, he finds only the six andthree of spades, so he plays the three and turns up As top card, whichproves to be the ace of spades. He puts that trick over to As side andturns up As top card, (No. 10,) as it is 110w As lead again, and findsthat A leads trumps, the three of hearts. Y now plays the four. 13 playsthe king, and as he (Z) cannot take it he plays his smallest heart, thetwo. It is now Bs lead, and he turns up Bs top card, the seven ofhearts. It Z is now uncertain whether to play the jack, the nine, or theeight, but thinks the eight is correct, he counts his cards, finds hehas nine in. his hand, and it on looking at the indicating device on theback of the eight of hearts he sees it is marked with the figure 9 he isassured that that is the correct play. If he should decide incorrectlyand take one of the other cards, an examination of the indicator,showing some other number than 0, would inform him of his error. A newplays the ten and Zs partner Y the ace, and. so the game goes on untilthe adversaries win three odd tricks. l')issatisfi ed with this result,he thinks he will play Ys hand, and he arranges the cards as before andturns up each in turn. llo sees that Z plays his cards just as he didwhen he held them, and also discovers that he cannot improve on 'Ysplaying 05 his (Ys) hand. 110 then decides to try game No. 4-, perhaps,and arranges the cards so that the top cards of the piles shall show theindicaters A, Y, ll, Z,

13 13 123 13 and. on turning up As top card he finds he leads the six ofspades, and so on. If at the lasttwo tricks he is undecided as to whichof two cards to play or to discard, he examines the indicators andselects the card marked 2, which is the right one, and he has only twocards left in his hand.

' If two persons are playing, they mayeither be partners or adversaries,and they will simply turn up their partners or adversaries top cards, sothat they play an actual game of whist and not double dummy.

If three persons are playing, they can arrange the cards for the absentperson and play the top card of his hand each time, just as if he werepresent and were an expert, instead ot j'llaying dummy.

It: i'our persons play with these cards, they simply sort out the As,lls, Ys, and Zs into four piles, and each takes the right one for hisposition at the table. It they play game No. 3, Z holds all thirteencards marked jj and he looks at the joker and finds the jack. of heartsis the trump of the prearranged game No. 3, so he places it face up onthe table until the first. trick has been laycd.

Each player will sort his cards (by the .t'aee, of course) into suits,just as at the ordinary game; but the indicating device will. tell themwhether they or any one of them is playing correctly or not. Suppose inthis game No. 3 that five tricks have been played. lead, and he is indoubt as to his best play,

IIO

It is As but thinks a trump lead would be judicious, as his suit isestablished. He concludes to lead the three of trumps, (hearts) He hasnow only eight cards in his hand, and on looking at the back of thethree of hearts he finds it has the indicator 8, and knows that it isthe correct card to be played. A single pack of cards may thus bearranged for as many games as there is room for indicators on the cards.The indicating-device is intended to be printed when the cards aremanufactured. In a pack like that illustrated the indicating devicewould take the place of the ordinary ornamental design on the back.

The indicators can be arranged for any game or games. One pack may haveone or more indicators or series of indicators for entirely differentgames, such as whist, Boston, sixty-six, &c.

The first series of indicators a are not essential, as they merelyindicate the order of the different prearranged games, each of which isplayed wholly independent of the others, and no special order isessential, although I prefer to arrange the cards and indicators so asto begin with a simple game and gradually lead to games of a morecomplex character.

Instead of having two sets of signs or charactersone to indicate theplayers and another set to indicate the proper order of playing thecards of the handsone set of characters may afford bot-h indications byprinting them in different colors or otherwise to indicate the differentplayers. Thus the series of indicators 0, showing the order of playingthe cards of one hand, may be printed in red or in one kind of type toindicate that they are As cards, another set in blue, or another kind oftype to indicate 3s cards, and so on.

lVithout limiting myself to the use of any special forms of indicatorsor to their position or number, I claim 1. 'A pack of cards divided intosets or hands, in which each card is provided with an indicatordesignating the order in which that card should be arranged in its hand,substantially as described.

2. A pack of cards divided into hands, in which each card is providedwith an indi cater designating the order of playing in a prearrangedgame, substantially as described.

3. A pack of cards divided into hands, in which each card in each handis provided with two indicators, one distinguishing the card from thoseof other players and the other 5 5 designating the order in which thecard should be played in a prearranged game, substantially as set forth.

4. A pack of cards divided into hands, and in which the cards areprovided with tWo series of indicators, one series designating the cardsof different players and the other the order of playing the cards in aseries of prearranged games, substantially as set forth.

5. A pack of cards divided into hands, and in which each card isprovided with indicators designating the hand to which it belongs andthe order of its .playing in prearranged games, and with a third seriesof indicators designating the order of the games, substantially as setforth.

In testimony whereof I have signed -my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT FREDERICK FOSTER.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. GRAHAM, J. S. BARKER.

